Prison deals with electrical, sewage issues

Falling trees and excess debris caused some issues with the electrical and sewage system at the Carbon County Correctional Facility earlier this month.

The facility’s maintenance director, Charles Neff, told the county prison board on Wednesday that a tree fell on the main power line servicing the Nesquehoning jail just after 3 p.m. on Nov. 3, “blowing out” service on eight poles.

As a result, Neff said, with power being interrupted to the prison, the emergency generator was supposed to kick on, but instead needed to be manually started.

The generator ran for about five hours, but then shut off.

Prison personnel called Pothering Generators, Pottsville, which removed the battery cables from the generator to reset it.

The generator then ran for another 17 hours before running into additional problems.

“It went into fault as soon as it shut down, and when mechanical services workers were checking the connections, the emergency shut off and the fault was cleared, with the generator being put into ‘auto’ mode,” Neff said.

Power was fully restored to the prison around 9:30 a.m. Nov. 4.

He said a few days later, another tree fell on wires on the Broad Mountain, but this time the generator started.

Neff also said the pump house generator failed to start and needed to be manually triggered.

He found the electronic register that tells the generator to start was burned out.

In addition, the grinder pump on the sewage shredder stopped working properly.

Neff said a transformer burned up and was repaired by Allstate Septic, adding that the grinder “took on too much debris” and had to be manually cleared.

Warden Timothy Fritz said despite the difficulties in the facilities, the regular operation of the prison moved along smoothly and without incident.

He said there were no water problems because the water is mostly gravity fed and the pump on the pump house was functional, meaning the storage tank capacity was not depleted.

Fritz said “no inmate problems” occurred during the troubled times, even though it was “totally dark” in the jail for a few hours.

Prison board President Anthony Harvilla said he was made aware of the problems immediately and “security protocols” were implemented, meaning all inmates were locked in their cells, although Fritz said some inmates are housed in two dormitory-style units.

In an unrelated matter, Neff said a duct detector in the kitchen at the jail needed replacement. The board approved payment of the cost of $2,091.29 to Simplex-Johnson Controls to remedy that situation.

The jail, which was built in 1994, has repeatedly shown wear and tear issues, including such things like burned-out motors on the rooftop units.

The inmate population as of Wednesday was reported to be 213.

In other matters, the board hired John Marikovits of Lehighton as a part-time correctional officer, and Brian Lewis of Nesquehoning was hired as a full-time officer. Both appointments are effective Dec. 3.